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Total, which holds the other 50% of equity in transfer to the French major in the press release,
Block 58, is due to assume the operatorship of saying: “We are in the process of transition-
the project in the near future. It will do so before ing operatorship to Total and look forward to
the start of next year’s drilling campaigns. robust Suriname exploration and appraisal pro-
Christmann referenced the upcoming grammes in 2021.” ™

BRAZIL
Karoon Energy finalises

acquisition of Baúna oilfield

AUSTRALIA’S Karoon Energy has wrapped up Karoon, described the acquisition as a boon
its acquisition of Baúna, an offshore field in the for his company. “We are delighted to finally
Santos basin, from Petrobras. assume operatorship of the Baúna asset, which
The company said in a statement dated will enable Karoon to transform from an oil and
November 9 that it had executed the transac- gas exploration company to a substantial oil
tion through a wholly owned subsidiary, Karoon production company,” he commented. “We are
Petróleo & Gás. The subsidiary now owns a looking forward to continue running the Baúna
100% stake in Baúna, which is also known as field in a safe and efficient manner while seeking
Concession BM-S-40, it explained. to realise the full value of the field for our share-
Karoon also reported that it had agreed to holders via our planned workovers of Baúna’s
pay $380mn in “firm” consideration and up to underutilised production infrastructure and
$280mn in “contingent” consideration, in line the development of the Neon and Patola fields.”
with the terms of its revised sale and purchase The Australian firm finalised the revised
agreement (SPA). version of its agreement with Petrobras for the
(This sum does not include the $50mn pay- acquisition of the Baúna field in July 2019 for
ment that the company is contractually obli- around $665mn. It then received environmen-
gated to make in the event that Brent crude oil tal permits for the project in August of this year.
prices average more than $100 per barrel this Baúna is located in a shallow-water section of
year, it added.) the southern Santos basin, one of Brazil’s largest
“Pursuant to the SPA, the Purchaser paid hydrocarbon provinces. It is around 50 km away
$150mn of the ‘firm’ consideration at closing (in from Karoon’s Neon and Goiá discoveries and
addition to the $49.9mn deposit already paid at 50 km from the company’s Clorita exploration
the signing of the SPA), which was fully funded area.
from available cash,” it said in the statement. “It The field, which started operations in Feb-
is expected that future payments in respect of ruary 2013, registered an output in July 2020
the remaining ‘firm’ and ‘contingent’ consider- of about 16,000 barrels per day (bpd) of oil. It
ation will be funded from Karoon’s existing cash is already home to six production wells, three
and organic cashflows from the Baúna asset.” water-injection wells and one gas-injection well
In the statement, the Australian company that are being used to exploit two reservoirs. All
described Baúna as “a quality production asset of the wells are subsea completions with tie-ins
supported by prudent funding arrangements.” back to Cidade de Itajaí, a floating production,
It also declared that the field “remains cash storage and off-loading (FPSO) vessel owned by
flow-positive at current oil prices.” the Norwegian-Brazilian joint venture Teekay-
Robert Hosking, the managing director of Ocyan. ™

Baúna lies offshore in the Santos basin (Image: Karoon Energy)

P14 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 45 12•November•2020